Kalyan Singh

Singh contested elections to the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly from the Atrauli assembly constituency for the first time in 1967[4] as a candidate of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) and defeated his Indian National Congress (INC) opponent by 4351 votes.[5] Singh contested each of the following ten legislative assembly elections from the same constituency, in 1969, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1985, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1996, and 2002. He won nine of these races, the exception coming in 1980, when he was defeated by Anwar Khan of the INC.[6] Singh gradually rose through the ranks of the Uttar Pradesh BJP. He was made a state-level general secretary in 1980, elected state party president in 1984, and re-elected to the same post three years later. In 1989 he became leader of the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh legislature.[7]

In late 1990 the BJP and its Hindu-nationalist affiliates organised the Ram Rath Yatra, a religious rally in support of its agitation to build a Hindu temple over the Babri Masjid in the city of Ayodhya.[8] The yatra became a significant mass movement, and strengthened religious sentiments among Hindus.[8] Considerable communal violence and polarization occurred in its aftermath.[9][10] The BJP made large gains in the parliamentary and legislative elections that followed in 1991, and was able to form a government in Uttar Pradesh, with Kalyan Singh becoming the Chief Minister for the first time in June 1991.[10][11][12]

As Chief Minister, Singh attempted to run an efficient administration, while also expressing strong support for the agitation to build a temple in Ayodhya.[13][2][14] Under Singh's leadership, the Uttar Pradesh government acquired 2.77 acres (1.12 ha) of land adjacent to the Babri Masjid property, The purchase was ostensibly to construct tourist facilities, but it allowed Hindus to conduct religious rituals at the site without directly addressing the legal status of the Babri Masjid.[2] He and other national leaders of the BJP, including Murli Manohar Joshi, traveled to the disputed site, and promised to build a Hindu temple there.[13] The Singh government also removed Baba Lal Das, the Hindu priest who headed the temple that existed within the Babri Masjid complex, in March 1992. Lal Das had been a vocal opponent of the agitation to build a Hindu temple over the Babri Masjid.[15]

On 6 December 1992, the RSS and its affiliates organised a rally involving 150,000 VHP and BJP kar sevaks at the site of the Babri Masjid. The ceremonies included speeches by BJP leaders such as L. K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti.[16] Activists of the Bajrang Dal and the Shiv Sena attacked the mosque, breaking through the police barricade, and demolished it. Police present at the site did little to stop the demolition.[17][18][19] Singh had previously given the Indian Supreme court an affidavit, in which he promised that no harm would come to the Babri Masjid.[2][20] A few hours after the demolition, he resigned as Chief Minister.[20] The Indian Union government dismissed the Uttar Pradesh state government on the same day.[3][21]

After a period of President's rule, state elections were held again in November 1993. Singh contested the elections from two constituencies, Atrauli and Kasganj, and won both.[14][22] The vote share of the BJP was approximately the same as in the previous election, but the number of assembly seats it won declined from 221 to 177, and an alliance of the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was able to form a government, with Mulayam Singh Yadav becoming the Chief Minister.[2][23][14] The alliance between Yadav and Mayawati, leader of the BSP, broke down in 1995, and Mayawati became Chief Minister with the support of the BJP.[14][24]

The Uttar Pradesh assembly elections of 1996 led to a hung assembly, and a further period of President's rule, before the BJP and the BSP formed an alliance with the BJP, allowing Mayawati to become Chief Minister in March 1997. Kalyan Singh became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the second time in September 1997, taking the post over from Mayawati as part of their power-sharing agreement.[25] In February 1998, his government withdrew cases against those accused in the Babri Masjid demolition, stating that a Ram temple would be built at the site if the BJP were to take power in Delhi.[26] The BSP and BJP came into conflict over the policies that the BSP government had implemented targeting Dalit social welfare.[25] On 21 October 1997 the BSP withdrew support for Singh's government. Singh continued in office with the support of a breakaway faction of the BSP, and a breakaway faction of the INC, led by INC MLA Naresh Agrawal, the Akhil Bharatiya Loktantrik Congress.[25][27] Singh's administration ended many of the BSP's Dalit-focused programmes soon after taking office.[25]

On 21 February 1998, Singh's government was dismissed by the Governor of Uttar Pradesh, Romesh Bhandari, after Agrawal withdrew support to Singh's government. Bhandari invited Jagdambika Pal of the INC to form a new government, in which Agrawal became deputy chief minister.[28] Bhandari's order was stayed by a division bench of the Allahabad High Court, which reinstated Singh's administration two days after its dismissal.[29]

As a member of the Lodhi community, Singh commanded support among Other Backward Class (OBC) groups, and his affiliation with the BJP had allowed it to expand its support beyond its traditional upper-caste base. However, he began to be seen as a "patron of the backward castes" by upper-caste members of his own party, and to face opposition as a result. Dissension within the party occurred at the same time as an increase in crime that Singh's administration was unable to control, and in May 1999, 36 BJP legislators resigned in protest at the continuation of Singh's administration.[14][2] The BJP's central administration replaced Singh as Chief Minister: Singh left the BJP to form a new party, the Rashtriya Kranti Party (RKP).[2][3] He contested and won the 2002 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections as a candidate of the RKP.[6]

Singh returned to the BJP in January 2004, and was made head of the party's state-level election committee for the 2004 Indian general election.[3] He successfully contested the election from the Bulandshahar Lok Sabha Constituency.[30] Singh resigned his party membership and his post of national Vice President on 20 January 2009, citing "neglect and humiliation" in the BJP.[31] After meetings with Samajwadi Party leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh, Singh announced that he would campaign for the SP in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.[32] Meanwhile, his son Rajveer Singh, one of the main reasons of his disenchantment with the BJP, joined the Samajwadi Party.[33] Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha from Etah as an independent.[34] On 14 November 2009, Mulayam Singh Yadav said that the poor performance of the party at the Firozabad Lok Sabha by-election was due to the loss of Muslim support because of Kalyan Singh.[35] In January 2010, he announced the formation of a new Hindutva-oriented political party, the Jan Kranti Party, but chose to take the role of patron while his son became the leader.[36]

Singh rejoined the BJP for the second time in March 2014, resigning his seat in the Lok Sabha to do so.[34][37] A day later, he was made national Vice President once again. The Jan Kranti Party he had founded in 2010 had merged into the BJP in January 2013.[37] His son Rajveer was elected member of parliament from Singh's previous constituency of Etah, as a member of the BJP.[38] Singh was appointed Governor of Rajasthan in 2014, and was sworn in on 4 September.[39] He was given the position of Governor of Himachal Pradesh as an additional charge in January 2015, and relinquished it in August of the same year.[40][41] He was succeeded by Kalraj Mishra in 2019 after he completed his five-year term.[42] Singh returned to active politics with the BJP, which hoped he could bring in support from those who supported a Hindutva agenda. Singh is considered an icon of Hindu nationalism, and of the agitation to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya.[43][44][45]

• Basu, Amrita (2015). Violent Conjunctures in Democratic India. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-08963-1.